The present invention is directed to an optical scanner device which has a transparent support plate for supporting an original to be scanned line-by-line and has a scanner carriage which supports a line-shaped light receiving means or device. The scanner carriage is positioned in a displaceable fashion under the support plate on two parallel guide elements which extend transversely relative to the line direction of the light receiving means and parallel to the surface of the support plate.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,346,984, whose disclosure is incorporated by reference and which was the basis for German Published Application No. 31 41 452, discloses a scanning device for copying technology. The scanning device had a transparent supporting plate of glass, which serves as the support for the original to be scanned. A scanner carriage is displaceably mounted under the supporting plate and is mounted for displacement parallel to the supporting plate on two parallel guide elements fashioned as round guide rods. A line-shaped light-receiving means in the form of a scanner mirror is arranged on the scanner carriage, and this scanner mirror, given the displacement motion of the scanner carriage, projects the original through a stationary optical imaging system onto a stationary opto-electronic image sensor in a line-by-line manner. Due to a comparatively long beam path between the original lying on the support plate and the optical imaging system, a sharp, line-by-line imaging of the original on the image sensor is achieved.
In order to be able to scan an original line-by-line without the involved position of the optical imaging system, U.S. Pat. No. 4,446,364, whose disclosure is incorporated by reference and which is based on the same Japanese Patent Application as the Published German Application No. 31 11 746, discloses that the original is introduced into a gap between a conveyor drum and a line-shaped light receiving means in the form of a photo diode row and that the original can be conducted past the light receiving means in contact therewith by turning of the conveyor drum. Such a scanner means, however, is only suitable for the optical scanning of individual loose-leaf originals.